ArtistLaprade, Pierre

Artist Years1875-1931

Artist NationalityFrench

TitleOn Deck

Yearca. 1905

MediumDrawing > Watercolor

DimensionsComposition: 12 X 18.8 inches

ProvenanceBailly-Herzberg 1980, p.178

Accession NumberRC1360

NotesPierre Laprade was born in Narbonne (Aude) and on 23 December 1931 was a French painter and engraver. Born François Pierre Coffinhal-Laprade, he came from a bourgeois and cultured background, son of the public prosecutor Raymond Coffinhal-Laprade, Pierre Laprade frequented the studio of Antoine Bourdelle from 1896 and, although dedicated to the judiciary, the sculptor encouraged him in the artistic way. He entered the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and did not remain there, preferring solitary work. In 1900, Ambroise Vollard bought his first work. The same year, at the Académie , Laprade met Henri Matisse and the future Fauves with whom he exhibited in 1905 at the Salon d'Automne. He participated in the Salon des indépendants de 1901 and was the subject of a special exhibition at Ambroise Vollard. He worked with the ceramist André Metthey (1871–1920) and designed lithographs for an edition of Manon Lescaut by Eugène Druet.

In 1906, he traveled to Italy and Holland, and exhibited collectively at Berthe Weill in Paris. He exhibited at the Galerie Eugène Druet and participated in the Salon de la Libre Esthétique in Brussels in 1907. In 1911, he performed the first series of the Pantins and wife Christiane de Gourcuff. In 1913, Pierre Laprade exhibited at the Armory Show in New York and Chicago. He designed the costumes and sets for the ballet opera Pygmalion at the Théâtre des Arts by Jacques Rouché, these sets were painted and executed by the decorator Georges Mouveau. Engaged during the First World War, it was decorated with the war cross. A founding member of the Salon des Tuileries, he exhibited until 1930.

In 1923 and 1925, Laprade executed a series of etchings for Vollard, which will serve to illustrate Paul Verlaine's Les Fêtes galantes

In 1925, he painted the series of churches and cathedrals, decorated a table service and, in 1926, he participated in the exhibition of the "Young Contemporary Painting" at the Galerie Bernheim-Jeune and the Galerie Katia Granoff. Until 1930, he illustrated literary works such as Vers et Prose by Paul Valéry, Les Fêtes Galantes by Paul Verlaine and Un amour de Swann by Marcel Proust.

Pierre Laprade died in Fontenay-aux-Roses where he is buried.
(source: wikipedia.ord)